The latest anti-speeding cameras installed at the Dublin Tunnel have not yet “gone live”, almost a year after they were announced as the solution to a decade-long problem of speeding lorries and cars.
Cameras and software which record the time a vehicle enters and leaves the tunnel were put in place at tunnel entrances and exits last year.
The “time-over distance” system gives operators the average speed of vehicles through the 4.5 kilometre tunnel.
If the average speed is in excess of the 80km/hr speed limit it falls to the Garda to issue fixed-penalty speeding notices.
However, although the time-over-distance system was unveiled in June 2016 – and announced in January 2017 to be “within weeks” of being operational – the cameras have not yet “gone live” for the purpose of prosecutions.
Various authorities involved in road safety at the tunnel, including the Garda, have made efforts to address the problem of speeding in the tunnel since videos of speeding trucks were posted online the day after the tunnel opened in December 2006.
However, none of the agencies involved could give a date this week for when motorists would start to receive speeding fines, based on the speed over distance system.
The Department of Transport referred all questions to tunnel operator Transport Infrastructure Ireland (formerly The National Roads Authority) which responded that the matter of the cameras being used as evidence in speeding prosecutions was a matter for the Garda.
Over the last two weeks, the Garda was unable to provide a response to questions as to when the system might go live. Separately, a Garda source indicated the cameras may be switched on in time for the June Bank holiday weekend – an important time in road safety, and a year after time-over-distance was announced.
Speeding has been a problem in the tunnel since December 21, 2006 the day after it opened when a lorry driver made a video of his vehicle exceeding 100 km/hr, significantly above the 80km/hr limit, and posted it on Youtube. The footage was apparently made using a hand-held mobile phone. It was followed by many more from other speeding vehicles including more lorries.
Currently more than half of all vehicles using the tunnel break the speed limit over the course of the 4.5km journey, according to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).
Responsibility for the tunnel is shared between several bodies, including TII, the tunnel owners Dublin City Council, the Garda and the Road Safety Authority.
Slow progress tackling speeding
In 2007, the National Roads Authority (NRA) said gardaí were on duty at the tunnel 12-16 hours a day. While there were no Garda speed cameras in the tunnel, the tunnel’s video cameras were relayed to a Garda operational desk in the administration building.
In 2008, then assistant commissioner Eddie Rock drew attention to these cameras and said “by the end of the year” these videos would be downloaded and fixed charge notices would issue to speeding motorists. It believed no motorists have ever been prosecuted with this evidence.
In March 2010 the roads authority placed tenders for a speed detection and control system in the European Journal.
However, in January 2011 the NRA said the Department of Transport had withheld approval for the project on the basis that the authority was operating outside its competence.
In 2014 the NRA told the Garda it was concerned about the level of speeding in the tunnel. The same month gardaí published a list of speeding “blackspots” which included the tunnel.
In June 2016 the roads authority – by now Transport Infrastructure Ireland – said it would install cameras which photograph vehicles entering and leaving the tunnel and calculate speed-over-distance.
However, attempts to get confirmation from An Garda about the date for the “go live” have not been successful.
